Sibneft Doubles 2001 Profits

Sibneft has said that 2001 net income almost doubled as Russia's sixth largest oil producer pumped more oil and boosted revenue by buying out three of the trading companies that market part of its crude.

Profit rose to $1.31 billion, or 32 cents a share, from $674.8 million in 2000, or 21 cents, according to US generally accepted accounting principles. Revenue rose by forty nine percent to $3.58 billion, Sibneft said in a statement. The company in October forecast profit of $1.1 billion on revenue of $3.3 billion.

“Sibneft now leads the Russian oil sector with higher profits and faster growth than any of its peers,” company President Eugene Shvidler said, as quoted by the statement.

The Yukos Oil Company and other larger Russian oil producers have reported declining 2001 profit after oil prices fell at home and abroad and inflation of eighteen percent pushed up costs. Sibneft last year boosted output by a fifth to 408,000 barrels a day, while its profit margin rose to 37 percent from 28 percent and the company kept the increase in production costs to just three percent.